The DVSA Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness 15-Month Rule
What To Keep, Where To Keep It, and How To Find It Fast
The DVSA Guide to Maintaining Roadworthiness 15-month rule applies to defect reports, inspections, and repair records.
Records of safety inspections, brake performance evidence, drivers’ defect reports, and rectification work must be retained for at least fifteen months.
‘Driver walk-around checks, safety inspections, first-use inspections, and intermediate safety checks must be documented using either manual paper systems, electronic systems, or a hybrid of both, as long as the records are complete and accessible.’ – Autocheck: Fleet Compliance in the UK – Record Keeping
What To Keep: Mandatory Records
- Your records of safety inspections must be kept for at least fifteen months for all vehicles. This includes vehicles that have been removed from your operator licence or have been sold or otherwise disposed of.
- A signed printout of your brake performance tests from either an RBT, plate tester or decelerometer should be attached to the safety inspection record.
- Drivers’ defect reports used to record any faults, and any nil-defect reports must be kept for at least fifteen months.
- Any report listing defects is part of the vehicle’s maintenance record and must be kept, together with details of any assessment, the rectification work and repairer, and roadworthiness declarations.
- Maintenance contracts and workshop competence notes, where outsourced, should also be available promptly and kept for at least fifteen months.
Electronic records are acceptable, if they meet the DVSA’s security and audit requirements, and hold the essential information that can be made available for examination. You can learn more about record keeping and retention on our website.
Recommended Extras
It is recommended that any of your MOT certificates which ensure roadworthiness, calibration logs which document repair or calibration activities carried out, and records of driver training which ensure competence, are also kept for fifteen months.
Where To Keep It: Storage Systems
As operators, you must ensure that records are complete and available. If you hire, lease, or borrow a vehicle, you are responsible for its roadworthiness and must have available copies of any inspections that have been carried out while the vehicle is in your possession. These records must be documented using either manual systems or electronic systems or a hybrid of both.
The right digital solution, for electronic records, can add benefits to your maintenance system by providing ease of access to all relevant data in one place, including safety inspections, brake performance tests, drivers’ defect reports, rectification work, maintenance contracts, competence notes, MOT certificates, calibration logs, and driver training records.
These records can be indexed by the vehicle identification number and the relevant ISO week.
How To Find It Fast: Retrieval Standards
An electronic system like Autocheck makes it easier for you to retrieve records and present them within minutes at DVSA roadside checks or audits.
On request, you may need to present a maintenance planner showing past and upcoming safety inspections. You can use an electronic scheduling system to effectively plan maintenance activities for the fleet, which will prove that your safety inspections have been planned in advance.
Alternatively, you may need to present maintenance contracts or workshop competence notes where tasks have been outsourced. It is essential to have a written contract that sets out precise details of vehicles covered, inspection frequency, type of check, and repair policy, all of which must be kept on the operator’s maintenance file and produced on request.
You can read further into audit readiness on our website.
Conclusion
Autocheck allows operators to store important documents against each vehicle or trailer, and ensures everything is securely backed up, searchable, and accessible whenever you need it.
With Autocheck, your electronic records can be viewed, exported, or audited at any time, and you can download, print, or securely email any report instantly, whether for internal use or to present at a roadside check or share with an auditor.
We also provide users with unlimited templates, such as our Records Retention Checklist which is available to download.
